Of Statues, Shards and Love too Late
by Blue-eyesThropp
Summary: Alternate ending to Frozen, leading to events of The Snow Queen.


**Author's Note: Hiya :-) So, a quick foreword before we begin: I've had the idea for this fanfiction floating around my mind since about May, but when I came to write the first ca. 200 words, it somehow didn't work out. Finally, though, I feel quite pleased with the results.  
>Basically, as much as I enjoyed Frozen, I have always felt it did not provide a good bridge between the so-called backstory of the Snow Queen and Andersen's original tale. Being a big Andersen <strong>**_and_**** Gregory Maguire fan, I decided to try my own hand at re-writing a re-write to fashion the ending to Frozen that ****_I _****had envisioned. It's kind of a hybrid between the two tales, and slightly twists some facts from both. Much darker that Frozen though.**

**Summary: Alternate ending to Frozen, leading to events of The Snow Queen. Rated K+ for character... well, "death"; I guess. No language or violence. Angsty.**

**Diclaimer: All rights go to Hans Christian Andersen (the great and marvellous storytelling genius) and Disney.**

**PS: The fanfic is sandwiched between quotes from the actual Snow Queen fairytale, which are written in italics.**

Of Statues, Shards and Love too Late

_Listen, it's time to begin; and when we come to an end, we shall know more than we do now_

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><p>As Elsa sunk to the icy floor beneath her, Hans' last words rang in her head, echoed a thousand times and repeated again and again, <em>"Your sister is dead. Because of you. Because of you. Dead. Because of you. Your sister is dead. Dead."<em>

She cupped her head into her hands. The prince's voice, reiterating those terrible words, grew louder and louder in her mind, reaching a volume that was hardly bearable. Her powers had killed her sister. Her father had told for years to be careful with her unique curse, warned her that they could one day be her detriment, but she had been a petulant child, not listening, reckless and stupid. Her thoughts of self-loathing and the prince's words mingled into one, awful scream, only broken by the sound metal against ice and the sound of something shattering into millions of pieces.

Elsa whipped her head around to the figure standing behind her, blue and icy cold. The young queen scrambled to her feet. Her younger sister, Anna, stood frozen before her; of the lying Southern Islander there was no trace. Her last moments of life, Anna had used to save her older sister, who had done nothing but shut her out for most of their lives, before the latter's powers froze her heart and body for good.

"Anna!" Elsa exclaimed, the full impact of what had just occurred hitting her with ferocious force, "Oh, Anna… No…No, please…"

Elsa flung her arms around her sister, warm tears turning to icicles on her chilly cheeks, whether it was her skin or the temperature that froze them, she no longer knew. Anna's last breath was visible in the air, and Elsa wished she could catch it somehow, preserve the beauty of that one, single breath, but it evaporated before her very eyes. Then, no more.

From behind Elsa, a male voice filled with disbelief, murmured, "What have you done?"

Elsa could not reply to Kristoff's words; she simply wept harder, her sobs racking her entire body, shaking her head and clutching Anna even tighter.

"She was so wrong about you," Kristoff's voice grew in both pitch and weight, "she believed… I could have saved her! She was so good! And you- you're… evil!"

"Shut up!" Elsa yelled, swivelling around, sending a blast of ice flying just past Kristoff's face. Elsa's ungloved hands flew towards her mouth as Kristoff regained his balance, staring at her, his belief in her innate evilness visibly reaffirmed in his ebony eyes, otherwise so trusting and good.

"I loved my sister! I never- I never wanted…"

Kristoff was already swinging himself on to Sven's back.

"You'd better run, _ice queen_," he called out, hatred colouring his every word. With that, the two rode off, leaving a distraught Else behind. Wiping her tears away with one hand, Elsa gripped the statue of her sister with the other. She would not leave Anna behind, never again. The ice was light and easy to drag across the frozen sea towards what was left of the ice-castle that Elsa had built for herself only days ago, the place of her self-imposed exile, which she now meant to resume forever more.

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><p>A staircase had been easily created; other damages could be seen to later. From the balcony overlooking most of Arendelle, Elsa spied several men of the royal guard, evidently contemplating traversing the sea. She watched them converse for many minutes, before giving up and turning away. Elsa was not planning on returning again; she was sure they must have guessed as much. She lingered long enough to make sure they had disappeared into the distance, before leaving the balcony to tend to her castle. If she was to live here until her days' end, she had better make sure it was habitable.<p>

The statue of Anna was stood close by the balcony doors, and Elsa paused to rest her hand on it as she passed.

"Anna," she whispered slowly, much as though her sister was still able to hear her, "I am so very sorry. If there was any way… I hope you can forgive me. I love you. I will always love you."

_"__Except true love came too late," _ she thought bitterly to herself. An act of true love- true love's kiss… instinctively, Elsa leaned in to the statue, pressing her lips against her sister's cheek until they took on a bluish tint. Nothing. It was stupid to believe that she was still capable of anything even resembling love. Kristoff had been right. She was cursed, a creation of the devil's cruelty; evil. It was not Anna's heart that had needed thawing. Anna's heart had been true and good and warm. It was her own heart; the small, chilled ice block inside her chest, that needed melting. Too bad no-one would ever lover her again. She was doomed to a solitary, icy existence.

Angrily, Elsa pushed herself away from the statue. Spinning around, she caught her reflection in a mirror she had fashioned herself, which, miraculously, had survived the attack unharmed. The mirror was a crude thing, created in a fit of newly found abilities, and composed not of one single sheet of ice, but several thick shards of different shapes and sizes, arranged in an elaborate mosaic. It distorted everything that it reflected, so that when Elsa glimpsed herself, not only did she see her reddened skin and puffy eyes from crying and her blue lips from the futile kiss; she saw twisted, contorted and abstracted visage: the image of the monster she was on the inside, finally depicted. Even she could no longer hide from or deny it.

Elsa glared into the distortion of her own face, watching it turn from shocked to seething, growing uglier by the second. With one swish of her hand, she sent the horrid mirror flying out over the balcony, crashing against the railing and smashing into a million pieces as it did so. The shards were caught by the wind and taken far away and into the city…

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><p><em>Kai said, "Ouch, ouch! Something pricked my heart!" And then again, "Ouch, something sharp is in my eye."<em>


End file.
